Wet Rooms - Installing One As A Second Bathroom

Wet rooms are a modern design, created as a way to utilise small bathrooms more efficiently. Instead of setting aside space for a bath tub or a shower, the entire room is used as a shower. This removes the separation from the shower and the rest of the room, resulting in the same floor level throughout the room.

The advantages of wet rooms are that they greatly increase the available room in a small bathroom; it can increase the market value of your house and they are easy to keep clean as there are not the same small corners to deal with as in a traditional shower or bath. Many wet rooms have the sink and toilet wall mounted to further save on space; this also makes cleaning much easier.

To make a wet room work, it is crucial that the room is entirely tiled with non-porous tiles. The tiles and sealant between them must be water tight. The advantage of this is that it results in much stronger waterproofing than is in a normal bathroom, however, the time and material involved in creating the waterproofing needed for wet rooms is substantial.

In addition, the floor of a wet room must slope towards a drain, or a drainage tile. There are a number of ways this can be done; in addition it is important to make sure no linen blocks the drain, as this can cause flooding. In very small rooms it may be useful to install a divider to separate the linen from the drainage to prevent this happening.

When designing a wet room it is important to think about the location of your toilet and basin. If your wet room is very small, then you might want to consider using a glass screen to separate these from the rest of the room. While this may compromise the look of the room, it may be more desirable than your linen and toilet roll constantly getting wet.